Databases have become the subject of significant recent interest, not only because of the increasing volume of data being stored and retrieved by computerized databases but also by virtue of the data relationships which can be established duping the storage and retrieval processes.
Structured Query Language (SQL), and in particular ANSI SQL, has become a preferred language media fop communicating queries to relational databases. As a consequence, there presently exist thousands of relational databases and thousands of related queries directed to such databases. Given an investment in such databases and queries, migration is not only a desirable feature, but a substantially necessary capability for new relational database systems and methods.
The concept of portraying a query in a graphical depiction on a display screen of a workstation is a relatively new approach to relational database interfacing. Visual queries, often referred to as graphical queries, utilize workstation graphics to represent query objectives heretofore defined by SQL statements. A visual query presents a pictorial depiction of the objectives of a search, thereby eliminating any need for a user to learn a query language, improving the rate at which SQL queries can be formulated, and reducing the defect or error rate of queries.
With the growing prevalence of relational databases, communication networks and workstations, the training and experience of a representative system user has decreased in relation to the resources available. The dilemma created by these various events is threefold. First, there exists an established and valuable base of queries formulated with classical SQL expressions. Second, there is a growing usage of relational databases and networks accessing their information. The end users of such databases are routinely less proficient in the very tools needed to efficiently and accurately access the relational database information. Finally, users of database access methods do not receive direct feedback of changes based on their manipulation of the database. Thus, a distinct need exists for methods, systems and programs which convert query statements into visual representations understandable by novice database users, and, in the compliment, which convert graphically or visually represented queries into SQL format statements usable in existing databases and network environments.
An article by Faloutos, F., and Sellis, T., entitled, "An Efficient Pictorial Database System for PSQL", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 14, No. 5, May 1988, discusses a prior art technique for searching a K or B-tree database using efficient data structures for optimizing the search, The report discusses access techniques fop retrieving information and displaying the information on graphical displays. For example, demographic information can be used to retrieve information and format it graphically to reflect population in various sections of the United States. An improvement to further optimize the access of data fop subsequent graphic display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,905,163 and IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 30, No. 1, June 1987, Intelligent Scheduling, Query and Reporting Data Base.
An example of a dynamic, graphical display for a knowledge base application is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,889 to Neuron Data. The patent discloses a graphical tree structure depiction of a knowledge base that is updated after changes are made to the database via user line commands. None of the prior art references disclose or suggest a graphic interface for directly manipulating a database and reflecting the changes in a dynamic manner.